The following experiments are in progress: 1. Bioassay in mice of blood component infectivity in a mouse-adapted strain of variant CJD. 2. Bioassay in squirrel monkeys of blood component infectivity in human patients with either sporadic or variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). 3. Inactivation of scrapie agent under incineration conditions of 600C and 1000C, assaying infectivity in both the ashed residue and vented flu gas. The following experiments are in the planning stage: 1. Inactivation of TSE agents using multiple ultra-high pressure pulsation. 2. Bioassay of total volume inoculations of serial dilutions of hamster-adapted scrapie and/or mouse-adapted CJD to determine if infectivity can be diluted to extinction. 3. Determination of intracellular and surface membrane partitioning of prion protein in circulating blood cells. 4. Use of drug combinations to treat symptomatic CJD in primates. 5. Oral and intracerebral inoculation of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in primates with clinical, neuropathological, and molecular biological studies to characterize the disease in a species closely related to humans.